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The
Colorado Experiment:
Facts and Fictions
By Ellington Darden, Ph.D.
© 2010. All rights reserved worldwide.
I probably should not be that surprised by all the Internet discussions, since
Viator gained such a phenomenal amount of muscle in only 28 days.
After reading carefully each link on pages 1-10, I could tell there was a huge
amount of misinformation being circulated about this intriguing experiment.
It’s time to reopen the books, reexamine the data, and set the record
straight – at least, from my viewpoint.
My Connection
The Colorado Experiment took place in May of 1973 at Colorado State
University. The following month I was at the AAU Mr. America contest in
Williamsport, Pennsylvania, when Jones and Viator released preliminary
information about the results.
All the relevant data were separated and assembled. Nautilus then printed
and distributed thousands of brochures on the Colorado Experiment. I
published the results in several of my books, and three or four other authors
did the same.
My own history with Viator goes back some four years earlier than the
Colorado Experiment. I first met Casey in a bodybuilding contest in Texas in
early 1969 and competed against him for the next two years. While at the
Nautilus headquarters in Lake Helen, Florida, from 1973 to 1980, I trained
and photographed Casey numerous times, especially in preparation for the
1978 NABBA Mr. Universe contest.
Concerning Arthur, I met him in August of 1970 at the AAU Mr. USA contest
in New Orleans and visited him in Lake Helen, Florida, multiple times over
© Ellington Darden 3
the next three years. I kept in regular contact with Arthur until he died on
August 28, 2007.
Now, let’s get to the actual facts and figures of the Colorado Experiment.
On June 9, 1971, I was talking on the phone to Arthur Jones. “Why don’t
you drive down tomorrow,” Arthur asked, “and watch Casey go through his
last workout before the Mr. America?” “Okay,” I replied, “I’ll be there at 3:00
p.m.” “Show up an hour earlier,” Arthur said, “and you can ride with me to
the airport to pick up Elliot Plese. He’s the Director of the Exercise
Physiology Laboratory at Colorado State University.”
The next day I hooked up with Arthur and we met Elliot Plese at the airport
in Orlando. Interestingly, Elliot was a good friend of Robert Singer, who was
my major professor at Florida State. They were classmates together in
graduate school at Ohio State University.
Elliot, Arthur, and I had a great time talking about strength training and I
could tell Arthur was very interested in doing a future project with him at
Colorado State University. After watching Casey train in an unbelievable
fashion that night, I was certain that Elliot wanted to join Arthur in a
strength-training study.
Two years later that is exactly what happened. Dr. Elliot Plese carefully
supervised the Colorado Experiment.
Fact: Arthur Jones and Casey Viator flew into Fort Collins and remained until
the end of May.
© Ellington Darden 4
Pretesting
Fact: Casey Viator, age 21, at a height of 5 feet 8 inches, weighed 166.87
pounds. His percentage of body fat, as measured by the “potassium whole
body counter,” was 13.8 percent.
The Conditions
Fact: The experiment was conducted from May 1, 1973, through May 29,
1973, for an elapsed period of 28 days.
Fact: Arthur Jones pushed Viator to his limit on each exercise. Viator’s
routines averaged 12 exercises; from start to finish, each workout averaged
33.6 minutes.
Fact: Viator’s ending body weight was 212.15 pounds with 2.47 percent
body fat. That was an increase of 45.28 pounds of body weight, which
included a loss of 17.93 pounds of fat.
Fact: Viator’s overall muscle mass gain in 28 days was 63.21 pounds. That
was an average muscle mass increase of 4.51 pounds per workout.
© Ellington Darden 5
Fact: Viator was successful at building muscle and losing fat simultaneously.
It was Dr. Plese’s and Dr. Johnson’s assessment that Viator used the
nutrients from his fat cells to assist him in the muscle-building process.
Plus, Jones pointed out that Viator won the 1971 AAU Mr. America, weighing
218 pounds. After winning the contest, Viator took some time off from
© Ellington Darden 6
Anabolic Drugs
From an Internet discussion forum: “To gain that much muscle, Casey
must have been on steroids.”
“Casey was on the juice,” wrote Ed Connors in his book, Gold’s Gym
Mass Building.
Mike Mentzer, in his Heavy Duty II, claimed Casey was on steroids
during the Colorado Experiment.
Arthur Jones was clearly against anabolic drugs of any kind and made this
clear in all his writings. He noted in his report on the Colorado Experiment
that . . . “the use of so-called growth drugs (steroids) is neither necessary
nor desirable.”
Kim Wood. Kim was a partner in the Nautilus Midwest distributorship and
was the strength coach of the Cincinnati Bengals for 28 years. Tom and Kim
were, and remain, strong supporters of anti-steroids in sports and fitness.
I’ve spoken with Tom Wood several times about his participation in the
Colorado Experiment and he’s certain that Casey did not take anabolic
steroids during the 28-day study.
Fiction: During the Colorado Experiment, Jones force fed Casey Viator each
day to ensure that his dietary calories and protein intake was massive.
Wrong. Arthur did not believe in force feeding nor massive protein intakes.
Also, no food supplements or protein powders were used.
Arthur’s wife, Liza, kept a daily food diary for Casey and everything he
consumed was meticulously recorded. I examined this diary and calculated
the total number of calories that he ingested each day. He never ate more
than 5,000 calories on any single day and most days his calories were closer
to 4,000 than 5,000.
Casey consumed the standard three meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner –
and usually had several snacks at mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and evening.
I visited with Casey shortly after the completion of the Colorado Experiment
and he took off his shirt and did some poses. His physique in person was
significantly more muscular and ripped, compared to the flatness that was
displayed in the after photographs.
© Ellington Darden 8
Throwing those measurements into the mix, along with the flat lighting of
the comparison photos, then a gain of 45.28 pounds of body weight and
63.21 pounds of muscle – are in my view, much more plausible.
Do Viator’s “after” thighs look bigger and stronger (also see page 1)?
They should because during one pretest involving the Universal Leg
Press machine, he did 400 pounds for 32 repetitions. During the
post-test, on the same machine, he did 840 pounds for
45 repetitions. Thus, his leg strength more than
doubled and he added 3” on each thigh.
© Ellington Darden 9
No Replication
Fiction: The Colorado Experiment is BS because no one else has been able
to even come close to duplicating what Jones claimed happened.
Jones always said that Viator was a genetic superman, with his long muscle
bellies and short tendons. And, he also pointed out that Viator was
rebuilding muscle he already had previously built.
Viator’s Routines
Fiction: One Internet discussion forum listed Casey Viator’s basic routine
from the Colorado Experiment as follows:
1. Leg Press
2. Leg Extension
3. Squat
4. Leg Curl
5. One-Legged Calf Raise
6. Pullover
7. Behind Neck
8. Rowing
9. Behind-Neck Pulldown
10. Lateral Raise
11. Behind-Neck Press
12. Biceps Curl
13. Chinup
14. Triceps Extension
15. Parallel Dip
Wait a minute! Those were the exercises Viator performed two days before
he entered and won the 1971 AAU Mr. America contest. I described his
exercise-by-exercise workout in Chapter 2 of my book, The New High-
Intensity Training. The ordered listing above was not a part of Jones’s
Colorado plan.
I still have copies of all the routines that were used in the Colorado
Experiment. Note: Each exercise was performed using a Nautilus machine or
a Nautilus prototype. Interestingly, Jones organized a slightly different
routine for each of the 14 training days. Here are three of them:
Routine # 1
Routine # 7
1. Negative Pullover
2. Negative Torso-Arm to Neck
3. Negative Shoulder
4. Negative Biceps
5. Negative Bench Press
6. Negative Chin
7. Negative Triceps
8. Normal Compound Biceps
9. Normal Double Shoulder
10. Normal Squat
11. Normal Hip and Back
12. Negative-Accentuated Leg Extension
Routine # 14
While Jones could be critical of training with barbells and dumbbells, he also
wrote extensively on how to get good results from using free weights. In
addition, he often referred to a Nautilus machine as “an improved barbell.”
Several reasons, but the primary one: Jones knew that with free weights a
trainee would NOT be able to apply negative repetitions with the same
degree of effectiveness that he could with Nautilus machines. And Jones
always thought that heavy negative repetitions were a key factor in
stimulating Viator’s muscular gains.
Looking back to the 1973 Colorado Experiment, Arthur Jones’s major goal
was to demonstrate to the coaching and medical professions that rapid and
large-scale increases in muscle mass are produced by the proper application
of Nautilus exercise. Jones’s marketing of Viator’s overall results certainly
achieved the awareness he desired for many years.
He did not, however, anticipate the fervent interest the study generated
from bodybuilders, or the ongoing speculation that it has received for more
than 30 years.
Dr. Ellington Darden was Director of Research for Nautilus Sports/Medical Industries for
20 years. He is the author of 71 fitness books. Dr. Darden makes his home in Orlando,
Florida, where he manages two interactive web sites, www.drdardenfitness.com and
www.drdarden.com, and continues to do research, writing, and Intensive Coaching
from his private gym.